Green budget: Details from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s proposed annual budget have begun to come into focus, with clean water and the environment emerging as priorities. A total of $100 million is included for promoting climate change resilience, healthy schools, and improving the Department of the Environment, Great Lakes and Energy’s (EGLE) emergency response capabilities for handling environmental contamination. “There’s […]
Posted inCommunity
Your River, Your Story: The Rouge is our river
by Scot Martin Let’s face it: the Rouge River is not a scenic river and will probably never receive that designation (though we can hold out for hope). In fact, part of the river and its encompassing riparian areas are downright ugly. Bare earth in the floodplain that has its ground cover continually drowned or […]
Posted inGuides
Ask Planet Detroit: What’s up with multifamily recycling in Detroit?
Dear Planet Detroit, Have there been any updates with Detroit’s multifamily recycling program? I haven’t heard anything in a while. Sincerely, Too Many Glass Bottles Here — Dear Too Many, Indeed, many of us have been eagerly and patiently awaiting for the city to roll out its multifamily recycling service. When it first announced the […]
Posted inSolutions
Can a community water lab restore trust in Flint?
Mckenzie Patrice-Croom was born in Flint, Michigan on January 31, 2017, right in the middle of the Flint water crisis. She had epilepsy and was regularly in and out of the hospital. And because of the water crisis, her parents faced challenges bathing her, making her formula, and mixing her medicines. On June 19, 2018, […]
Posted inUncategorized
From the Headlines
Lax enforcement: Following Planet Detroit’s article on the Moroun-owned company Hercules Concrete storing aggregate next to a questionable seawall, WDIV reports that although the city issued 1,054 tickets for waterfront properties with a total of $506,350 in fines, they have only collected $76,000. The Moroun property has violations that include a cracked concrete cap and failing timber piles. “Our violation […]
Posted inCommunity
Here’s what you can learn from counting hawks for 90 days straight on the Detroit River
A Q&A with Jerome Jourdan of the Detroit River Hawk Watch Every fall, billions of birds migrate south for the winter in a display that can be breathtaking to witness. Some do it every day. That includes the people who run the Detroit River Hawk Watch, an annual survey of raptor and turkey vulture migration […]
Posted inAccountability
Will Michigan’s AG break the Morouns’ deal-of-the-century grip on the Detroit riverfront?
In deep debt to its master concessionaire, the Detroit Wayne County Port Authority has been hamstrung in its ability to work in the public interest to redevelop the Detroit River shoreline. A state senator argues that it’s time to end the deal. In 2005, former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick’s administration negotiated a deal with businessman Manuel […]
Posted inUncategorized
From the Headlines
Incinerated: The shuttered Detroit Incinerator could be demolished by this summer, according to Todd Grezch, CEO of Detroit Thermal, which owns the closed facility on Russell Street. And the incinerator’s operator, Detroit Renewable Power, has been ordered to pay $200,000 in fines for odor complaints and air quality violations as part of a consent agreement with Michigan’s Department of […]
Posted inAccountability
Federal judge to decide on motions to dismiss Detroit water shutoff suit
Lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and NAACP appeared in U.S. District Court Wednesday to oppose motions to dismiss in a class-action lawsuit over Detroit’s water shutoffs. Two separate motions to dismiss were filed by defendants; one by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and another by the City of Detroit on behalf of defendants that […]
Posted inCommunity
Detroit photographer Amy Sacka to unveil ice fishing exhibit at Dossin Museum
Sacka’s work focuses on ice, identity, climate change, and the future of a local cultural institution. An exhibition of Detroiter Amy Sacka’s photography on declining Great Lakes ice cover “Last Ice” will launch on Feb. 20 at The Dossin Great Lakes Museum on Belle Isle. The exhibit will feature contributions from artists Scott Hocking, Michael […]